Namibia Student Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) company secretary, Fillemon Immanuel, has announced that NSFAF, under the directive of the Office of the Prime Minister, is actively reviewing its funding policy to enhance inclusivity and equity. Immanuel made these statements during the high-level tertiary education funding budget review dinner held in the capital on Thursday. The event was held under the theme 'Funding Modalities in the Age of AI, Emerging Sectors, 4IR, and 5IR.' 'We are looking at our funding policy with the intention of catering for those students that may be falling between the cracks, but I must say that even if we review this policy there will be a threshold against which the students will be measured to ensure quality and a return on investment,' said Immanuel. He urged business leaders and employers to encourage former NSFAF beneficiaries to contribute to the fund's financial sustainability by repaying their loans. 'We want to be able to complement what is allocated to us by gov ernment and the one way to do so is through our recovery programme,' he said. He said NSFAF prioritises funding for studies of information technology, computer science, food technology, water engineering and telecommunication, which are closely linked to artificial intelligence and which will enable the attainment of an industrialised Namibia. Minister of Higher Education, Training, and Innovation, Itah Kandjii-Murangi, emphasised Namibia's commitment to leveraging technology for future needs through the TVET, Higher Education, and Innovation Policy Review. 'The interaction of cyber-physical systems in industry 4.0 brings about smart manufacturing in which humans and machines reconcile and find a way to work together to improve the means and efficiency of production. These innovative technologies have the potential to revolutionise the energy sector by increasing productivity, enhancing safety, and cutting carbon dioxide emissions,' said Kandjii-Murangi. She added that it is imperative that universities a nd other institutions of higher learning brace themselves to revolutionise their teaching approaches through the adoption of new technologies to produce the relevant skills for the oil and gas, as well as green energy, value chains. Source: Namibia Press Agency The Sunyani Technical University (STU) has admitted 3,362 fresh students to pursue various diploma and degree programmes for the 2023/2024 academic year. According to Professor Kwadwo Adinkrah-Appiah, the Vice Chancellor (VC), the university issued admission letters to a total of 5,704 prospective students. Freshers for the academic year showed an increase of 14.0 percent over last year's figure of 2,949 students. Addressing the 28th matriculation ceremony of the university at its main campus in Sunyani on Friday, the VC said 2,252 of the fresh students, representing 67.0 percent were male whilst 1,110 representing 33 percent were females. In terms of disciplines, 2,833, representing 84.3 percent enrolled into science, technology, engineering and TVET based programmes as against 529, constituting 15.7 percent for Business and Administration. That, Prof Adinkrah-Appiah explained, was in line with the university's mandate as a Technical University and attributed the significant rise in the student enrolme nt for the academic year to several factors, including good performance of students in the world of work, as well as advertisements. He said the introduction of new Bachelor's and Master's programmes was another key factor that had contributed to the increase in the student enrolment, saying the university was undertaking a more intensive enrolment drive to continuously improve its annual enrolment into new and existing academic programmes. 'When patronage of such industry-driven programmes is improved, it would help produce more skilled graduates who can readily find employment or set up their own businesses to reduce the existing high spate of youth unemployment facing our country in recent times,' Prof Adinkrah-Appiah stated. The university currently runs the following programmes under GTEC accreditation: nine Master of Technology (MTech), 26 Bachelor's programmes (BTech. and BSc. Programmes), 23 Higher National Diploma (HND), five Diploma and eight other non-tertiary programmes. Prof Adinkrah-Appiah s aid all was set for the university to start apprenticeship programmes under the Phase IV of the Ghana TVET Voucher Project (GTVP) under the auspices of KFW, indicating that 100 Mastercraft Persons (MCPs) from various Trade Associations had already been registered to commence the training as an initial step for training of all Apprentices under these MCPs. He urged all prospective students, both local and foreign, to take advantage to enroll on these innovative and industry-driven programmes to acquire the requisite knowledge, technical and professional skills that would make them readily employable to avoid the 'temptation of joining the so-called Unemployed Graduates Association in Ghana after going through some other programmes which are more susceptible to joblessness.' The University is also making efforts to introduce several tailor-made micro-credentialled Programmes (Short Courses) for industry practitioners within and around the Bono, Bono East and Ahafo regions, which would eventually lead to full degree certifications. 'Establishments such as Newmont Ghana Gold-Ahafo Mine, VRA, and the Ghana Water Company within the three regions are informed to take advantage of these programmes at the Sunyani Technical University to provide life-long learning opportunities for their esteemed staff,' Prof Adinkrah-Appiah said. Source: Ghana News Agency